ACT tips another $4m into home battery subsidy scheme

The Australian Capital Territory government will extend its subsidised roll-out of battery storage to Canberra homes and businesses, after announcing on Wednesday that it would allocate another $4 million to support the scheme.

The battery scheme, a part of the ACT government’s $25 million Next Generation Energy Storage program, and funded by the territory’s large-scale renewable energy projects, aims to support the roll-out of around 36MW of energy storage in up to 5,000 Canberra homes and businesses over the next three years.

As we reported here in May 2016, The first round of the funding program, a $600,000 pilot round, saw three companies deploying battery storage technologies from Tesla, Panasonic and LG Chem, as well as smart control technology company Reposit Power – as part of a tender to deliver lower cost storage systems to 200 Canberra households.

ACT minister for climate and sustainability Shane Rattenbury said the program, which had so far seen more than 200 batteries installed at discounts of around 24 per cent off an average household system, was being extended due to popular demand.

“Following strong community and industry interest in the Next Generation Energy Storage program currently underway, the government is opening a third competitive grants round,” Rattenbury said.

“Companies have until 19 October to prepare submissions seeking grant funding to install subsidised battery storage linked to rooftop solar.”

As we reported here in April, the $25 million being set aside by the ACT for battery storage support compares to the $300,000 put forward by the Adelaide Council and the South Australia government in the next biggest support scheme in Australia. At the time, the ACT said its scheme was the biggest outside of Germany.

“By the end of the year we expect over 1MW of battery storage to be deployed. These will be installed across 200 to 300 households, but this is enough solar power to support over 1,000 Canberra households for several hours at their average hourly electricity demand, even when the sun is not shining,” Rattenbury said.

“The program is currently seeing upfront discounts of around 24 per cent off an average household system, although the grant amount will be competitively assessed through this new grants round,” he said.

“The grants will be tied to investment in the ACT renewable energy industry, with proponents being required to establish an office in Canberra for local sales and support and commit to further investment in the ACT’s fast growing renewable energy economy.

“Successful proponents from previous grant rounds have contributed research, education and trades development to the Canberra economy, helping us build our reputation as a globally-recognised hub for investment, training and research in renewable energy,” Rattenbury said.

This article was originally published on RenewEconomy’s sister site, One Step Off The Grid, which focuses on customer experience with distributed generation. To sign up to One Step’s free weekly newsletter, please click here.